1. Field of the Invention
The invention is in the field of gravity-feed beverage dispensers based on a storage container; it relates to a self-contained dispenser of a chilled beverage into a cup, in particular on the basis of a removable necked storage carboy.
2. Description of Related Art
Beverage dispensers designed to be installed in a collective space, workplace, or place frequented by visitors have been disclosed. In particular, among these dispensers ones have been disclosed which comprise a reserve of treated beverage kept under pressure in an elevated inverted position for gravity feed of the beverage which a dispenser contains. A carboy may be removed for the purpose of being replaced when it is empty, and the dispenser includes percussion means for the sealing cap of an installed carboy. Once the cap has been perforated, the beverage is drained by gravity toward a conduit for delivery of the beverage to a dispensing tap, after it has passed through refrigeration means to chill it. Customarily the refrigeration means comprises an exchanger made up of a coil carrying a liquid refrigerated by a source of cold. The coil is wound around a tank mounted between the perforation means and the beverage dispensing tap, through the interior of which tank the beverage passes and in which heat exchange takes place between the beverage and the refrigerating liquid. It will be found that such dispensers often have an additional beverage delivery conduit which communicates with the percussion means and a tap for supplementary dispensing of beverage at ambient temperature, that is, without intermediate passage of the beverage into refrigeration means.
In order to acquaint oneself with a technological environment similar to that of the invention, one may refer to patent applications FR2769610 (Mistral Distribution AS) or EP0581491 (EBAC Ltd).
The first problem to be solved resides in the fact that the refrigeration means should offer a beverage chilling capacity commensurate with the peak consumption, which, after all, is greater because the ambient temperature, and accordingly that of the beverage stored, is higer.
Conversely, on the other hand, it is not desirable for the capacity of these refrigeration means to lead to disproportionate dispenser operating costs, considering the fact that these means are kept in operation over periods during which consumption of the chilled beverage is episodic and irregular.
Another problem lies in the fact that beverage dispensing by carboy involves frequent maintenance because of the requirements of hygiene, with the resulting maintenance cost for such devices, because of the possible presence of strains of bacteria in the beverage dispensing system and of stagnation of discharge of the beverage in areas in which the dispenser is kept. Lastly, in the event of unforeseen pollution of the device by a contaminated carboy, spontaneous evacuation of impurities is not guaranteed by simple gravity flow of the beverage over its dispensing circuit, especially since the heat exchange capacity in question, in the form of a tank or a bag, favors retention of the beverage inside certain areas of its filling capacity containing beverage being chilled.
Also known in the area of beverage dispensing is prior art remote from that referred to above, consisting of a device for dispensing a plurality of beverages from individual tanks kept under pressure, for a beverage dispensing counter, for example. In order to avoid provision of each of these tanks with a refrigeration source of its own, GB2204670 (MK Refrigeration) has proposed a dispenser of the type comprising a refrigeration source common to all the beverage tanks to be refrigerated, in a first refrigeration stage, a liquid heat transfer refrigeration liquid which is then taken to second refrigeration stages mounted in parallel in a closed circuit comprising a pump for circulation of the heat transfer liquid. Each of the beverages, kept under pressure in the corresponding tank, circulates inside a coil through a refrigeration compartment of a second refrigeration stage. Thermostatic means assigned to each of such second refrigeration stages for measurement of beverage temperature if necessary order operation of an intake valve for admission of the heat transfer liquid to the refrigeration compartment of a particular beverage.
The object of this invention is to propose a gravity-feed cold-beverage dispenser based on a removable storage carboy, the competitive nature of which invention is based on reduction of maintenance costs, especially from the viewpoint of hygiene, both by reducing the frequency of maintenance intervention operations and by reducing the number of operations to be carried out during such intervention, and on-a satisfactory beverage refrigeration capacity during peak periods, with nevertheless low latent operating costs.